Current approaches of wind or gas flow velocity in an open space or gas flow in an enclosed chamber velocity distribution rely on three major anemometers: cup anemometer, thermal anemometer and ultrasonic anemometer. Cup anemometers can provide the average velocity and usually is bulky in size and can be affected by the gas density, for instance. Thermal anemometers are density independent but easy to fail due to its fragility, and they again usually can only be used for average wind or gas velocity as well. Sonic anemometers can provide wind or gas profile in an open space but they are usually expensive and require wind tunnel calibration. The profile measured by the sonic anemometers is also easy to be distorted due to the local variation of the environments that may not be predicated by simulated wind tunnel conditions. They are also too bulky in size.
Profile of wind or gas velocity in an open or enclosed space is much demanded for controlling a device accurately that shall be operated in such an environment where wind or gas velocity would be the major source of disturbance. The knowledge of this profile will then enhance the precise control of the device by minimizing the disturbance. For example, an enclosed process chamber that relies on the gas flow to generate plasmas will need the understanding of chamber flow velocity distribution (profile) to optimize the process efficiency. In a wind power generator, accurate measurement of the wind velocity profile would be critical to power generation efficiency; the same applied to the solar power with a sun tracker which performance would much affected by the wind/air flow velocity around it.
The current invention using the Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) mass flow sensor to configure into a new wind or gas open space anemometer for measuring the desired wind or gas velocity profile in the interested space would therefore can have many advantages over the current existing technologies.